The swords went rattling into their scabbards. The guide, equipped with alpenstock and climbing irons, led the way, Richard followed him, and the hussars came trailing behind, with old Paul as rear guard. The enemy, after waiting an hour for the fugitives to make a sally from the village, pulled some very long faces when they caught sight of them, high up on the mountainside, following in single file a steep path along the face of the cliff. Never before had horse's hoof trodden that perilous path; it was so narrow that both steed and rider were in constant danger of being hurled into the mountain stream that ran foaming a hundred fathoms below. One false step or an attack of giddiness would have been fatal. Amazement was followed by anger on the part of the pursuers. They had no desire to give chase, but, to prevent their intended victims' escape without a scratch, they discharged their rifles at them. Their pieces had a range of a thousand paces, and the target could not have been better,--dark blue uniforms against a white limestone background. The rifle-balls rebounded from the cliff, so that each one went whistling twice by the hussars' ears--as if their position had not been already sufficiently perilous. Yet in that hour of danger the horsemen sat half asleep in their saddles, with nodding heads and drooping eyelids. Only Richard in the van and old Paul in the rear were still on the alert, and kept calling to their comrades to wake up. A turn in the path presently led the riders out of range, and there was no further cause to fear molestation. A fir grove, as sombre and still as a cathedral, received them in its shelter. Here the starving men unearthed a store of turnips that had been deposited there for feeding sheep. It was not an inviting dish to human palates; but hunger like theirs is not squeamish, and they were only too glad to feed on the coarse provender. They wished to rest in the grove, but their guide spurred them on once more; pleasant weather was too precious to be wasted in that region, where fog and darkness would be sure to afford them all the time they needed for repose. Forward, then, as long as horse and rider were able to move! In the afternoon the hussars came to a shepherd's hut, where their guide committed his charge to the care of the occupant of the little shanty, and himself returned to the village. Finding a few trusses of hay, Richard and his men bought them for their horses. But was there nothing, they asked, which might serve to stay a hungry man's stomach? The sheep were feeding below in the valley, and it was too late to go after them. There was, however, a tub of sheep's milk that had been set away to curdle for cheese; it was not an appetising drink, to be sure, but nourishing and strengthening. Each hussar received half a glassful.